Eternally Us
by hoarfrost-sn
Summary: Anna has terminal illness and counts her days like clockwork. Kristoff is a road junkie that can't seem to settle in anywhere. She has to learn that not every ending may be as tragic as she's thought, and he has to know that home isn't always the structure, but may also just be the person he bumped into he's known long enough to love fully. Kristanna!Modern AU
1. I

**a/n: hi! ok so this one is going to be a fairly long note but... if you follow me or my other stories i'm sure you've noticed how inactive i have been lately. just check my profile for the info. though my other stories are held into an indefinite hiatus for the time being, i have been working on this piece of story for the past few weeks. i couldn't get the idea of it out of my head, and i love these two dorks too much not to write it so here; a new short series! i plan to keep it in less than six chapters or so, so prepare for evenhandedly longer chapters than usual and such. i hope you like it, and though i haven't written for a long time... i hope it will meet your expectations or pique your interests. thank you!**

**ps, do not fear of angst and such because i don't like that either, haha. i'm just such a sucker for au's... (this was supposed to be based on a game but it's not anymore, just the same title ok haha)**

**also, special thank you to EveBelle18! my lovely beta and i honestly couldn't have written this without her. thank you, eve, for not giving up on me.**

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><p>Chapter I: New doors open<p>

"You look beautiful today, Anna."

"Thank you."

Anna's fake smile couldn't have stretched into a more pathetic line of grim plastic. Her smile was wary, worn with tired eyes dying to roll into the back of her head. It was the same line, same routine, same practiced words. Even if her hair looked like a hives nest and the bags on her eyes an inch deep, it was always the same compliments she heard from her sister's lips. She had wished she hadn't gotten out of bed or at least try to pathetically stage her antic sleeping, but no, her sister just _had_ to see right through her uneven breaths while she "_slept_". Her stomach was just starting to flip over in disgust when she piped up again.

"How are you then?" Elsa asked, beginning to replace the wilting flowers on her bedside table, delicately pouring out the black licorice water once crystal clear into the trash bin near her bed. Anna was trying very hard not to stop her midway, because she liked the flowers this time. Even if their once pink lively petals began to crumble into dry charcoal, she still liked them.

Too bad she's replacing it. Again.

"I'm good," she shrugged, acting nonchalant as usual, knots formed on her shoulder overnight popping as she did.

"That's good."

"Yeah."

"Uh-huh. So, anything new with your stat?"

"No. Everything's fine. Haven't had an attack since… then."

"Good."

Anna doesn't know how, but it seemed like every week, every day, her conversations with her sister seemed to diminish into nothing as their time spent together went by. The topics dwindled; talking seemed too much work… But Anna's thankful, really. If it wasn't for her godforsaken sickness, maybe she wouldn't have even been noticed by her older sister. It was Elsa's excuse to hangout with her now, knowing depression could jeopardize her well-being.

And it wasn't like Anna to become so mute and reserved. Despite her crestfallen state, she had always found the smallest reasons to laugh and smile (like chocolate, puppies), and even look on the bright side of every blotched darkened one. An eternal summer, that's what she was, her father had told her countless times to date. But just recently, her demons were coming to play with her more often than they usually did, searing words of displeasure and dying hope into the uneven beats of her forlorn heart. It's just that—with her illness worsening, she couldn't seem to find the right inspiration to move on or ignore it, more or less.

And with everyone around her moving so animatedly and placidly, with sugarcoated words and false hope given from time to time, there was no better person she could trust other than herself, she knew.

"So," Anna's head pivoted back to her sister, blinking a few not noticing she had lost herself in her own thoughts and in the new vibrant colors of the flowers her sister replaced on her bedside, drastic colors bringing a warm feeling to her chest. Elsa grabbed a stool next to her bed, crossing her legs, leaning forward to her with a hopeful smile she was battering down if it was plastic too. "What plans do you have for today?"

Anna pursed her lips, squaring her shoulders emphasizing in what she means to say. "I don't know, really. I'm sick of support group and I already finished my term paper. I'm too lazy to get my butt off my bed today to grab a film downtown so… I don't really know."

"I see."

"Yeah."

Elsa watched as Anna twiddled with her fingers on her lap, blanket still spread down her waists to her legs, her pajamas complementing the color of the pink walls she's requested to countlessly change paint for the past few months (since she's specifically said that white walls should be illegal in _any_ room), though starting to find it mundane. Her older sister nodded slowly to everything she had said, eyes transfixed on her hands.

"But… I guess I'm in the mood for something to drink?" Anna shrugged again, a hopeful smile suddenly surfacing her tired face. Maybe she could actually get out of this cell, it was better than staying in her room for another dragging day. "Coffee or chocolate, maybe."

Elsa looked back to catch her blues, a touch of remorse swirling in her own and she slowly grabbed forward to take Anna's hands in her paler ones, thumb rolling at the back of her hand.

"Anna… I'm sorry, but I can't take you anywhere today." She said, head dipping a bit. "Remember the defense I was telling you about weeks ago? Well, per se our professor scheduled it for today. I'm still working on some parts of it, and there still are lots of loopholes. And if I want to graduate this year, I—"

"_Have to prioritize school first_," Anna finished for her, head bobbing whilst she imitated her sister's queenly tone in practiced manner. She rolled her eyes, Elsa laughed, finding it rather silly.

"No, Anna. You're more important than some stupid defense, okay? But I still have to finish this," she shook her head, a small smile unwavering from her face. "But I promise, we can hangout once I secure I'd bring home a cap and gown this year, okay? But for now, I'll just drop you off at Starbucks or Tiana's. Sounds good?"

Anna would be lying if she said that a little piece of her heart didn't chip when Elsa turned down another chance, another weekend, another day they could get to know each other more other than in her boring room after her anathematized fate. She just wanted to know her better, under her title of the heir, the brimming to-be-lawyer, the hope of the family, and her sister. But maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have some time to herself, a door, a chance finally opening right in her face. Still, she forced her lips into a tight smile, hoping it would mask whatever grief her very own sister left in her heart.

"Sounds good," she agreed, sadly.

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><p>Kristoff doesn't remember how on earth he ended up in the quiet town of Arendelle of all places, but it must've been a pull or a call or just an escape from the last cheap hotel he stayed at, getting bat in the head by a mop by the crazy almost psycho manager once Sven's putrid pee started to whirl around the lobby, and the suspect was clear.<p>

He made a quick glance to the back mirrors, seeing Sven looking right back at him with his brown innocent chestnut eyes, huge tongue flopping out of his mouth.

How could a ball of fuzzy ears and bristled tail be so deceiving?

He sighed, eyes focusing back on the wide lanes. It didn't matter now anyway. He'd still choose his fuzzy mutt over a soft bed and warm nightlight. And now, like every other day, it was just the two of them on the road again, finding a place they'd both call home with content.

Or maybe, find them.

Kristoff drove the truck into a small town that came into clear view, marking their arrival with a bump on his trucks beat down tires from provincial lanes to cobblestone roads. He squints his eyes as they press forward, the entire town looked too sunny, too generic, too fabricated for his taste. It was a good change from towering buildings to one identical house to another, but the place seemed too dull. There was a dead ambiance in the air, and Kristoff was sure of himself that he wouldn't want to find a house in a place like this, thinking of immediately passing by the small city to a larger one, taking a detour from traffic on its almost deserted route.

Just as he made amends with himself that they'd just make a quick drive around the place, his stomach growled beneath his gray flannel shirt. Kristoff grimaced.

"Well," he said, mumbling almost to himself but loud enough for Sven's ears to perk up with what he says next. "Sorry 'bout that, want to grab something to eat?" he asked, eyes flicking up to the rear view mirrors. Sven wagged his tail approvingly, scattering his unlikable brown and black fur on his couch, head bobbing to the side with a growl.

"Guess that's a yes," Kristoff nodded.

The town really wasn't that bad after taking a few rounds around the place. It was actually complete with every other structure in every city he had driven into; Theaters, movie houses, a local mall, coffee shops. Kristoff began to wonder if there was a small inn they could stay in for the night, and the quiet ambiance was just his cup of tea, he finally agreed. He could only hope that whoever kept the inn they'd stay for the night would allow pets, and he shot Sven a wry look after the thought.

Finally, a few more laps and sightseeing, Kristoff found an inviting coffee shop called Tiana's just a block away from the theater. As he neared the place, he leaned back on his seat, thinking of the uncountable gifts and advantages living in a provincial life once more had to offer.

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><p>Anna's neck was starting to grow numb after endless nodding and agreement with Elsa that she'd do fine on her own. Usually, it was just the two of them on weekends taking on their chocolate escapades to new levels, differentiating mallows from chestnuts, guessing games, the usual sisterly fluff they'd do together.<p>

But today wasn't going to be one of those days. Anna was actually going to get a taste of freedom. Just her on her own in the big mean world about to consume her alive with the heavy aroma of coffee and dark chocolate digesting in her stomach. Elsa had wanted to spoil her this once, but now she was having a fleeting feeling of nervousness that she'd turn around at any moment to bring her back home and keep her cooped up in her room again.

She gave her sister a sideways glance, seeing a hint of concern and worry with her scrunched face and knitted eyebrows. She forced out a light chuckle to lighten up the mood.

"Elsa, I'll be fine," she says, shrugging for good measure. "It's not like this is my first time alone, you know?"

Elsa snapped her head back to her, frustration adding to her fret. When Anna realized her mistake, she immediately shut her mouth.

It wasn't like it had been a long time ago, when Elsa had left her for the briefest second to buy chocolate sundaes across the street from where she's left her. Three years ago, her memory serves her accurately and so precisely detailed; because it was the day she had been diagnosed of her damned sickness.

She remembers swinging her legs on the bench right across the ice cream shop Elsa had disappeared into, remembers the sun bathing her ivory skin and making it glow with a surreal light, like an angel descending from heaven, evenly remembers the pigeons crying overhead and the eccentric swirls of the wooden bench beneath her fingertips, and—

An impossibly strong wrenching pain twisting the knots in her fiber chest, making her hands clammily snake up her satin shirt, clenching, convulsing as she tries to desperately stable herself, will herself to scream and cry in pain. But rather, she collapsed to the uneven cobble street, gasping with wide eyes as her 15 year old self couldn't comprehend and form a logical explanation why it would happen to her at such an unlikely time, why it needed to be so random, why it would happen to _her_.

Her. Anna. Anna Anderson. The girl that stuffed herself with chocolate and anything creamy at the dead of the night (usually Tuesdays), the girl that claims to have Peter Pan syndrome and keeps her hair in two evenly split braids, the girl that's more adorable than awkward when it comes to meeting new people. The one branded as the spare, the second choice, Plan B if Elsa would fall out of the job of being the heiress to the family company (which was a slim chance, everyone knew).

It happened to her. It just _had_ to be her. _Why?_

Why? Why did this illness choose her? Of all people? Accidents, failure, death… that happened to other people, people on TV, in movies, people she barely knew, but that does not happen to her. That can't happen to her.

But it did.

Anna doesn't know. She doesn't. The moment she learned it tumbling down her personal doctor's mouth, followed by medical terms and highly probated speech pounding a migraine into her head almost made her faint.

Elsa's skeptical eyes fish her out of her linked memories.

"Elsa, I'll be fine, okay?" she muses, trying to lighten the suddenly heavy ambiance hanging in the tightly packed space of her sister's car. "Just knock em' dead in your defense, and maybe buy take outs for tonight's dinner while you're at it. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Rapunzel's boyfriend works over there, he knows the gig if I get an attack. Or if anything's up, I always got your number on speed dial."

"You'd do anything to get out of my claws these days, huh?" the blonde forces out a dry laugh, her eyes back on the road.

"A little freedom, that's all I ask," Anna rolled her eyes, arms folding in front of her chest, falling back on the seat. She was in no mood to argue with Elsa (mostly because she _always_ won).

"Fine, fine. Just don't get too crazy."

"Elsa, it's a _café_. Need I say more?"

"A café with evil boiled water stored in teapots and wooden stools you can slip your butt off if you're too reckless yourself."

"I rest my case."

This drew another laugh from her sister's lips, head turning slightly to face her, hoping she got the message. She dragged one hand off the wheel to grab Anna's limp hand on her lap, rubbing circles on the back of her hand.

"Anna, I just worry about you," she says firmly this time.

_Well, maybe you worry too much._

She wanted to retort, but held her tongue. Maybe she was just sick of home or the same routine or the practiced words or the false hope given to her every single day of her life, either way, she didn't want to start any drama. Especially now that they were less than four blocks away from Tiana's.

"I know," she bit the inside of her cheek, dainty fingers squeezing back.

"Just—whatever happens, always have your phone, okay?"

The café finally came into view, and Anna couldn't wait to jump out of the car. Breathing seemed to be a little harder inside the tight space or maybe it was because she just wasn't good while under pressure.

"Okay."

"Awesome."

"Yeah, great," withdrawing her hands to round her things and hike her shoulder bag to her shoulder, Elsa parked the car on the far end, with Anna hoping she wouldn't kill the engine even before she could step out of it. "I'll see you later. Five sharp?"

"Five sharp," her sister nodded back just as her shoes hit graveled streets, the sun beating down harshly, giving her red hair a surreal glow. "Do you want me to walk you out?"

"I'm sure I'll do fine on my own, Elsa. But thank you, really," she forced another tight-lipped smile, chanting for her sister to finally go away, door shutting in her face.

The windows rolled down to show a very concerned Elsa. "Okay, okay. I'll be off then. Have fun."

Turning on her heel, Anna waved goodbye as she took measured steps with the other hand tucked with her shoulder under her arms, a suddenly wide grin spreading over her face just as Elsa's car is nothing more than a dot across the road.

Freedom, chocolates, real life people—it hits her that she hasn't been out in _so_ long. A wave of excitement washes over her, jumping on her feet as she turns and laughs and—

She hits a brick like wall, that's oddly warm and sturdy at the same time. The impact makes her stagger a bit, yet she finds her footing with a still shocked face. The warm figure elicits something between a groan and a growl, and she looks up to it with a confused look on her face.

It wasn't an _it,_ it was a _him_. A tall, blotch skinned, handsome blonde stood before her, rocking a flannel shirt and tight jeans. She might've fallen for him at love at first sight with those honey glazed eyes and romantic 80's song playing inside the café, if only he wasn't wearing that _very_ angry scowl on his face and hands clenched tightly on his coffee with white knuckles…

"Ah! Hey! Will you watch where you're going?!" he angrily glowers at her, and it makes Anna cringe and wonders if looks could kill, she's probably be dead under his nasty glare.

Her eyes fly wider, blinking a few when her mind comprehends what she's actually done.

Hands slapping to her mouth, she stifles a gasp before apologizing profusely. "Oh—gosh! Did I just do that? I'm sorry I didn't see you I was walking, you know, well, technically not walking straight forward because I was kind of looking back at my sister when I might've bumped into you and—oh my gosh, is that shirt new? I didn't mean to and I'm—"

"You're crazy, you know that?" he says after her, throwing the crumpled plastic coffee cup to the ground, obviously not caring if he was littering. He unsticks his now adherent shirt from his chest, wet and sticky from his black coffee. He was sort of glad he'd let the drink cool of a few minutes ago while inside before he decided to finish it inside his truck. "If maybe you could have just walked like a normal person, that'd would be great. And sure you're sorry. I know you are. Everybody always is."

Seven seconds.

Maybe if he didn't come out seven seconds earlier he wouldn't bump into this weird stranger. Maybe if she didn't take so long to walk and wave away her sister seven seconds earlier she could've avoided this mess. Maybe seven seconds earlier, their worlds would never have clashed.

But they do.

Shocked with his words suspended in the air, Anna's gaze melts on him, and so does a piece of her heart. The smallest of smiles slowly surfaces her tired face with eyes turning glassy by the second he rambles on some more.

"Sheesh, I wonder how your sister even puts up with you. You must be some klutz to put up with, huh?" Kristoff produces a piece of napkin from the café and repeatedly wipes it over his soaking shirt, with caffeine smelling better than his natural odor. "I mean, if I get this much trouble by just bumping to you on the streets, how much more could a sister bear with—"

A sniffle. A laugh. Those two small things escape her cherry lips, but it's enough to grab his attention.

His head snaps back to her, eyes growing wide and unbelieving. Did he seriously just make a stranger cry?

His mouth runs dry "H-hey," his voice is suddenly shaky, taking one uncertain step closer to her, scared he'd make her runaway. "Are you… crying? Look, don't cry… I, I didn't mean anything I've said. I meant it as a joke, it's my fault, really. I should've—"

"Thank you."

"…What?"

"_Thank you_," she laughs out, her voice a light sound in the air. Her face breaks the most genuine smile he has ever seen in his life, and it makes him more than confused. He just barked at a stranger for making him spill his coffee on his shirt, and now she's laughing and supposedly crying at the same time. She's crazy, he thinks, but there's something about her sincerity that tugs a string in his heart.

Concern still written on his face, he eases a hand on her forehead, like he's taking her temperature. "Are you sick?"

She laughs again, slapping his hand away playfully. "No, silly! I'm just… happy. Yeah, I'm happy."

_I think she needs help_, Kristoff thinks to himself, lips still in a grim line with his swatted hand back to her shoulder to ease her of her qualms. He shakes his head. "You're crazy."

"No, you are," she teases, jumping on her toes. Was it silly to feel so safe and comfortable with this uneasy stranger? She doesn't know, because it felt right. So _right_. The smile in her eyes is brighter than he's ever seen, truer than any person he'd encountered and it makes him feel like he's known her in a long time already. He suddenly had a good feeling about her, a very good feeling. "This may sound weird, but I'm sort of glad I bumped into you, Grumpy."

"It's Kristoff," he rolls his eyes at her, and it earns him another resonating laugh from her. "Now tell me, did I do something wrong?"

Her smile softens. "No, no. You've done nothing wrong. You've actually done something I wish my sister and everybody else did a long time ago."

"What, yell at you?" he asks incredulously, yet anticipating for her out of this world answer.

She smiles again, like he's just said the silliest thing in the town of Arendelle. "No, being true."

_Anna, you're so sophisticated._

_Anna, you're so lovely._

_Anna, you're very good._

_Anna, your stats are perfectly fine._

_Everything will be fine, Anna._

Lies.

People have always been afraid of her getting depressed, oppressed, scared, and with all the feigned words and hope to cover all her faults, it was nice to have something different.

Someone different.

She had too many closed doors slammed right in her face, and now, a new one opens right before her, warm and real this time, with hope fluttering and dusting whatever delicacy she had inside.

It's the sincerity that gets him right in the heart, and he wonders how lucky he is to have even bumped into this crazy stranger. Other than that, he was rather glad. It was slowly making him think twice that Sven's were better than people, despite the craziness in the whole situation.

Anna was the first to notice how closely pressed they were to each other, with both of Kristoff's hands on her shoulders as if to snap her out of herself when he stepped closer earlier to check her temperature, eyes looking down at her, studying her dust freckled face and ocean blue eyes. He finds her attractive, to say the least. She pulls away slowly, smile small and suddenly bashful.

"Would you…" she begins, eyes wandering to Tiana's place. "Would you like to go grab a drink with me? Well, technically, _I'll_ get you a drink since I owe you one. And a shirt."

He notices how she pulls away, and turns to Tiana's place to hide his embarrassment under a cough and a clear of his throat. "You don't have to, I mean, not get me a drink. I can have my own, but I'd love to have a drink with you. Don't worry about buying me a drink or a new shirt, it's nothing much."

She giggles a little at his silliness, finding how awkward and soft he really was. "Fine."

"Black coffee or frap?" he asks, opening the glass door for her and the air conditioned scent of the store greeting them as he does, like the gentleman he never was to anyone else other than her just now. Only now does he notice how beautiful she actually was, the sun giving her crimson hair a halo under the heat, cutoff shorts and satiny shirt she wore just in time with the season.

"Chocolate," she says confidently. And just before she strides inside, she turns to face him. "And oh yeah, I'm Anna. I'm glad to have met you, Kristoff."

And with that, she swaggers right inside and places their orders before he could move his lips to speak.

"Anna," he lets her name scorch his tongue, the silliest of smiles inching over his lips as he keeps his eyes glued on her.

And her alone makes him think that the little town of Arendelle may not be so bad after all.

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><p><strong>so, um, uh, how was it? and oh yeah, if you're wondering what anna's illness is, in this au, she has cystic fibrosis. i'm sooo sorry if i don't have the facts straight... but i'm working on it. thank you for reading, feedback is most appreciated.<strong>

**see you in the next chapter!**


	2. II

**second chapter is up! this one contains lots of sister interactions. i'm sorry if i've failed at family fluff. i tried. * crawls under bed ***

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><p>Chapter II - Hello's<p>

"You seem awfully happy lately," Elsa squinted at her from her stool, her hold on her daily paper suddenly tight, crumpling under her touch.

Anna's head jerked back to her sister that sat across the kitchen by the counter, a suddenly warm smile spreading on her face, replacing the sleep on her crusted eyes.

"Oh, hm, me? Happy? How'd you say that?" she hummed, opening the fridge to get the almost empty pack of cereal and milk. Still in her jammies with her usual bed hair and no toothbrush law as early as 7 AM at Saturdays, she decided on the usual rather than cooking up anything else, since Elsa always had coffee on weekends anyway.

She must've failed epically in trying to act nonchalant because Elsa shoots her down with what she says next.

"Anna, you're _humming_."

She freezes.

Slowly turning to her, she nearly drops her bowl on the tiled floor.

"Oh. _Gosh_."

"Anna, who the heck is it this time? Spill."

"What?! No! I mean, I don't have anybody in particular, I mean, nobody! Really!" she held her hands up in defense for good measure.

"Anna, _I_ know better than anybody in this entire town when my little sister has been humming for the past week," Elsa quirks an eyebrow up, making Anna groan.

"A week? I've been humming for a _week_?"

"And smiling. A lot. Smiling _a lot_ on your own."

"What?! I do not smile on my own!"

"Yes, you do," her regal sister replies matter-of-factly. "I watched you in the living room the other day while you studied your notes. You did '_the smile'_. Alone. While studying _calculus_. Anna, nobody smiles at their notes while they're alone. _Especially_ calculus."

Anna couldn't believe it. She fell back on her own stool as she looked down on her supposed to be breakfast for today, yet losing her appetite as realization dawned on her. Well, she did feel lighter lately, happier even, buoyant on her feet whenever she walked while singing an unfamiliar hum unbeknown to her own self.

She rests both elbows on the counter across from Elsa, suddenly letting out a breath she didn't know she'd held for long. "Wow."

"Wow sure is the word to describe it," Elsa chuckled, finally putting down her papers to give her sister a suddenly stern look. "Now, all kidding aside, who is it? Who's the unfortunate soul my sister is crushing on now? Seriously."

Anna slapped both hands to hide her blushing face, hoping her sister wouldn't point out the color rising to her cheeks. "No one! Really!"

"Anna!"

"His name is Kristoff," she groaned in defeat, ducking her head to hide her embarrassment. Elsa couldn't hold back her laugh.

"Kristoff? Very grotesque."

"Kristoff. Kristoffer. I'm not sure, but I think it's Kristoff," she peeked between her fingers to see the widest grin on her sister's face. She hated it when she teased her like this. Other than that, it was sort of nice to break a few walls between them since her downfall, and now here they were, teasing each other like the 5 year old and 8 year old selves they once were.

It had been too long. Too long.

Another laugh, only harder this time. "Wait, you mean to tell me you like someone and you don't even know his name?!"

"No!" Anna shot back, feeling her face swell by the minute. "I mean, I'm sure his name is Kristoff. I just know it is. And you know me. I'm never good with names."

"So you like someone whom you're not sure of what their name is, hm?"

"Hey! Don't judge! It's not every day I bump into a cute stranger on the streets, alright?"

One of Elsa's eyebrows shoots up. "So, you met him when I dropped you off at Tiana's, huh?"

"Sort of…" Anna's voice trailed off, nervously tugging on one of her red locks, a habit she grew used to whenever nervous. Her hair was a mess, a beehives nest, Elsa would say and usually scold her to comb it around these early hours in the morning, but she was too busy having fun of her to even care this time. "And I've been bumping into him, a lot. And by a lot, I mean every day."

"Every day?" Elsa takes a few sips on her coffee, careful not to scald her tongue whilst she kept her eyes trained on her baby sister.

"Mm-hm," she nods. "We kind of hung out after I spilled coffee on his shirt, it was an accident and he got really mad at first but then he didn't mind. Then we went out for coffee and talked the whole day, he's amazing, Elsa. I think I really like him. Well, not like _like_, just like, maybe like-like a crush or a onetime thing. I don't know, we kept running into each other after that, when we went out shopping, the grocery, the way to school, either way, it was a pretty perfect day after I'd met him."

"Week, I suppose," she corrected her.

"Mmff, maybe," she shrugged, another genuine smile Elsa rarely saw on her lately suddenly tugging on her lips.

Silence suddenly fell over them, Anna circling her spoon in her bowl of cereal, a still and ever growing smile on her face while Elsa watched her warily, both hands wrapped on her mug as she let the warmth of it permeate through her ivory skin. She knew she was thinking about him, because she had that silly smile pinned on her face she could never bring herself. If their parents were here, she knew they'd be thrilled just as she was. As beautiful as she was like this, she couldn't help but think of the consequences of her actions.

She breaks the silence and jumps into her sister's thoughts.

"Anna," Elsa says, all seriousness in her tone.

She snaps her out of her daydreams.

She sighs.

"You know there are…" there was no easy way for her to say this, but she has to. "Repercussions."

Anna's face fell. Like every other thing her sister has done to her, it breaks her heart.

"Repercussions for… this. So please don't take this harshly but," another sigh. "Guard your heart. Don't make this harder than it is already. Especially with a stranger. And I know you know that things don't always go the way we wish it would. We don't really live on the bright side of things, Anna."

Maybe Elsa was thinking of her past and heartbreak, but she knew to the depth of her soul that Kristoff was different from that animal Hans. Though they've only met a week ago, it felt like she'd known him forever. She knew she just wanted to keep her safe like any older sister would do, but she couldn't help but feel a little angry for yet taking her only source of genuine happiness away from her.

The smile on her face fades into a frown. "I know, I know."

"There's a difference from loving a person and loving the idea of the person, I'm sure you know this."

"I do. But Elsa—"she fists her palms. "He's different. I know it's weird to say it but… he just is. I know he is. If you'd just meet him, you'll like him, I assure you. He can come off as scary and a little intimidating at first but… he's sweet, you know."

She felt silly for defending someone she barely knew herself, but her nerves and senses screamed that what she said was right.

"Says the person with a bad judge of character," Elsa's says, eyes softening after a beat. "And that is _if_ you see him again."

There it is. The 'if' word_. If you live this through. If you survive this operation. If you get through the day. If you meet him again._ The only word that separates the possible from impossible, her only hope and her only enemy.

Anna blanches.

Elsa hesitates for the slightest second, pausing to think of a way to cover her soft and harsh words that washed reality into Anna's racked mind. "Look, it'll be fine, okay? As long as you're happy, I'm happy. Okay?"

Argument was futile at this point. Like every other choice she had tried to make for herself, everyone who was anyone would jump in to feign away her whims and needs, saying things that they would think would be far more better than what she wanted. But Anna lacked the energy to say what she will, and ended nodding her head robotically in agreement as she always did.

Elsa smiled. "Good. But if you do see him again, tell him I'd love to have him over for dinner. Get to know him better," she says this almost as a mock with humor, a humorless joke Anna responds with a roll of her eyes.

Just as she was about to make up a stupid excuse to run back to her room and skip breakfast, the doorbell rings.

"I'll get it," Anna announced, already jumping off her stool to stride out of the kitchen. She needed a reprieve from Elsa's smart mouth, and an unwanted guest just may be the answer to her excuse.

The doorbell rang twice on her way to the hall, fingers combing the knots and bed swirls in her hair to look a little less messy than she already is, she thinks to herself.

Opening the door, Anna begins to ramble.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm—"

And there stood the person she least expected.

Kristoff.

The sight of him on her doorstep leaves her shocked and breathless, with all the air suddenly sucked out of her lungs.

He gives an impish smile, biting down nervousness. "Hi."

Slack jawed and the sight of his Colgate smile reminding her of her manners, she snaps out of her shocked state. "Oh, uh, hey."

"I—"he moves a hand to awkwardly rub at the back of his neck, suddenly bashful and shy. "I wanted to return you this," he fishes out a small keychain she could recognize miles away, making her gasp as he stretches it out for her reach.

"My keychain!" she happily takes it from his rough hands, feeling baby sparks of electricity flash at the tip of her fingertips at the feeling of their hands brushing for a fraction of a second. "How did you…?"

"The grocery. Uh, you were with your sister, I think? And you sort of dropped it on your way out… I didn't get the chance to give it to you afterwards because you guys were in such a rush."

"Oh," Anna appeals to his statement, nodding slightly. Her eyes glue back to the snowflake figured keychain Elsa got her from her business trip weeks ago, having more of a sentimental value other than using it for her cabinet and room's key. "But how did you find me?"

He shrugs. "I found that Arendelle isn't that much of a big place, so it was easy to find you."

Smiling, she closes her hands over the keychain, clutching it dearly to her chest. "Thank you."

It sounded a little cliché that he'd run across city just to find her for a petty keychain, but it meant a lot to her, really.

They stood there for a long while, Kristoff's hands bunched in his pockets while Anna held the keychain over her chest, standing and watching each other for the briefest of seconds. A wave of comfort surges about their chests, something both have never felt in other people's gaze.

When Kristoff decided to himself that it had been long enough, he clears his throat to get her attention. "Uh, so…"

"So…" she mulls back, bouncing a little on her heels, looking up at him through her batting lashes.

Before he could move his lips to speak, Elsa intrudes.

"Anna? What's taking so long? Who is it?" she emerges from behind her sister only to stop midway as her busied mind comprehends the scene. Taken aback, she couldn't hold back her shock and an '_oh'_ as she sees the towering figure of Kristoff at their doorstep.

Anna pulls on a smile. "Elsa, this is Kristoff. You know… and Kristoff, Elsa, my sister," she looked back and forth at the two, anticipating as she watched the two unfold with the sudden introduction.

Elsa's mouth drops a little more open. "Oh… _oh_," Realization slaps her right in the face, and Anna couldn't help but giggle. Shooting Anna a look that screamed _be quiet_, that effectively shut her up but with a still smiling and silly face, she turns to the stranger at her door. "I meant, hello. It's nice to meet you, Kristoff. I've heard quite a big deal about you," she stretched her hand out in greeting.

Kristoff hesitated. "You… heard about me?" he queries, a little stunned.

She nods. "Yes, from a certain somebody that's clumsier than our ancestors, that is."

"Hey!"

"Shush, there's a guest at our door, where are your manners?" Elsa scolded that was more of a tease to get on her nerves.

This earned a mischievous smile from Anna, a hint of humor in her sapphire eyes. "Speaking of manners… what had you been saying about _if_ you met Kristoff here?"

Elsa's eyes widen suddenly, and a replay of what she's said at breakfast makes her almost forget how to respond to her sister's question. She knew Anna won this time, but didn't want to admit defeat. On the contrary, Kristoff was more than flustered than confused at what the two sisters were going on about without his knowing.

A nasty glare and a sigh, Elsa finally says between gritted teeth, "If he'd like to stay for dinner."

"Technically, that's breakfast."

"Whatever. Just close the door before getting in. Don't want flies getting in so early in the morning," and just like that, she had disappeared back into the kitchen, probably getting ready to cook up a meal she was actually trying to avoid on weekends to slack off with a cup of coffee.

With Elsa out of earshot, Kristoff leaned down to whisper into Anna's ear. "What was that all about?"

She couldn't help but laugh at how silly his incredulous face looked under the dim lights of the hall. "That, Kristoff dear, is about winning."

He pulled back with a shake of his head, lips lopsided and still puzzled. "Women. I'll never understand you odd gender."

"Sisters, actually," and she shrugged his words off. "After staying for breakfast… there's really no easy way for me to say this but…" suddenly growing nervous and jumpy, Kristoff knit his thick eyebrows up in concern once more.

"What is it?"

"Would you…" she shreds all the last specs of embarrassment. "Like to stay and play Super Mario with me?"

What she said must've been stupid, because it draws out the richest and fullest laughter she's heard from him since they've met six days four hours and twenty minutes ago. His sudden outburst makes color paint her freckle-spilled cheeks, but she finds that his laughter was somewhat a melody. She likes his laugh, she notes to herself.

"What? Hey! Don't laugh! You're making me feel stupid!" she puffed her cheeks out like a child, only to make him chuckle some more.

"You're seriously asking me to play Super Mario with you after breakfast? That's it?" he asks.

"Well, Elsa's obviously too busy to play with me since she has a degree in the bag to keep, and I miss playing with someone, okay? But if you don't want to, I understand…" her voice grows small, and she feels herself shrinking under his gaze.

One strong hand falls firmly on her shoulder to anchor her back to earth. "Anna, are you kidding? I'd love to play Super Mario with you. It's just that, it's been a long while someone asked me to stay over their house. You really don't mind me crashing in? Are you sure you want me here?"

She looks up to him. If she made him stay now, it would be like she would be asking him to stay forever. It could be the start of something so unpredictably wonderful, or incredibly disastrous. Whatever would start between their futures would not be set in stone, a risk greater than she'd ever imagine. And if she said no, she would lose him and save herself from any commitments and attachments that would destroy her poorly beating heart as early as now. The risk was high, but somehow she knew that she was brave enough to try.

_Guard your heart_, Elsa's words play in the back of her head on rewind as a reminder. Closing her eyes briefly, she takes a breath, and clutches harder on the keychain pressed to her chest, feeling its eccentric curves dig into her skin.

And when her eyes flutter open, she sees Kristoff. There's a different spark in his eyes, and she wonders if he'd risk the same. Reaching her hand out to touch his, she coils her hand tightly with his larger one, warm and real in her touch, almost covering her whole hand. His hands were strong and reassuring, something she would love to hold to everyday and anticipate to encompass her delicate heart and soul.

And there, she sees that all the barriers and brick walls he had built to keep every other person away falls apart under her single touch, his defence mechanism, his protection, his shield from being hurt or scarred by too many times before, but her alone makes him just _him_.

"Yes," she says softly, smiling warmly at him. "Stay."

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><p><strong>feedback is most welcome. also, happy holidays!<strong>


	3. III

Chapter III - Fresh Starts

Tick Tock.

Tick Tock.

Tick.

Tick.

Tock.

A pair of small fists slammed on the coffee table.

"HAH!" the lightest laughter escapes from Anna's lips, coming out harder when Kristoff took the wipe of shame when he'd dragged a hand to rub at his poor and somewhat teary eyes. "I win!" she declared happily, clapping at the other end of the table parallel to him.

He narrowed his eyes at her, one hand still rubbing at one faintly sore eye. "That was unfair! I'm sure I saw you blink at the end there, lil missy."

"No, I did not," she says confidently, crossing her arms over her chest and puffing it out to look like someone with a high sense of dignity, completely covering the cheesy love quote printed on her hanging shirt. "My eyes flickered. And yours closed. There's a fairly major difference between that."

Eye roll. "Whatever. It's just a game."

"A classic game you've lost. Four times in a row!"

At this point, Kristoff could vaguely feel his face grow crimson under her stare. It wasn't his fault he couldn't help but stare because she was so beautiful. With those big, round, sapphire blues he couldn't help but drown in, yet blinded him for how innocent the depicted and showed a little bit of her raw soul to him whenever they'd engage in an intense staring contest. For all it's worth, he couldn't. He couldn't help looking at her blue eyes for too long, because he knew he was a goner whenever their eyes would meet, even for the slightest of seconds.

He turned away, color on his cheeks. "Do you want to play a game instead?"

"Mmpf, no," she replied, falling back on the couch. He stands up to stretch, sitting next to her after he does, with a cushion the only thing between them. "We've finished all the levels on Super Mario, and my heart isn't ready for horror games yet."

"Chocolate escapade?"

"Elsa's still mad at me for inhaling everything from last time. We'll have to wait for her nerves to cool down," she chuckles.

"Movies, then?"

"I think we've watched everything, but can we rewatch Aladdin? I love Aladdin."

"Anything you'd like, feisty-pants," he grins, standing again to load the CD into the player. He'd given her such a name after she'd steamed off a week ago about how politicians these days were nothing but corrupt 'mother duckers' she noted, and he laughed his heart out because for someone so small and reserved brought out a tigress, whom was but still afraid of using cuss words, nevertheless. He'd calm her down, of course, fairly warning her to cool down and came up with the cute little nickname to add in a little teasing.

When he sank back down to the couch next to her, and she scooted closer to him, shoulder to shoulder, knees brushing against each other, creating a comforting and wordless communication between them. It had been a month two weeks and a day, not like Kristoff was counting, because being with Anna had been one of the best episodes in his life, he decided.

He had temporarily settled in an inn she had recommended he and Sven could stay in for the meantime that had a small shelter for pets too, making their stay in Arendelle more than welcoming. He even found a job in an ice delivery store that paid nicely, which to after Anna had learned about started placing orders for truckloads of ice every single day just to see him, to which Elsa steamed about later on.

As adorable as she was wanting to see him everyday, he had agreed to see her (other than making her order delivery 24/7 and give her sister's wallet a reprieve), and sparks of friendship and a little bit more blossomed wonderfully around them.

Though both were too shy to admit, they had a lot of chemistry. In their short time of being together had triggered something far better than any connection they had encountered. They were a team, a close bond, partners in crime that no one else was allowed into their small posse. They had no one to please, and that's what made them invincible. Despite their differences and catastrophic history, it wasn't as bad as they'd expect everything to be.

He remembers it clearly, one late afternoon after playing Jenga and chess, she had blurted it shamelessly without fear.

"I'm sick," she said reasonably, eyes still trained on the scattered block pieces on the coffee table, finger lazily rolling on one etched block in her palm, scared of what he might think.

"Sick?" he asks dumbfounded, hoping that whatever would roll off her tongue next would be meant as a joke.

"Yeah. Sick. Like, really sick," she paused, face tense all so suddenly to swallow a few words. "My organs are failing. There's war in my lungs. I'm not sure but my doctors say I have not much to live, but here I am, still breathing. Which in retrospect is actually a miracle since I've always settled for mediocre help. But I don't think it is, I guess I'm just really lucky."

Silence.

There was a dull silence that followed after that, her words suspended in the air with the slightest sound of the chipping of his heart ringing in his ears. He couldn't help but stare at her, unbelieving, and she couldn't look back either. Because she knew if she did, she would cry. Just like that.

After her words had sunk fully into his comprehension, he spoke, finally; "I never knew my parents."

"What?"

"I never knew my parents," he says again, heavily this time. "But I never was without a family. A big fat family took me in, even made me as their own like I was really a part of them. So merry. But my heart was always on the road, maybe hoping for shelter or miraculously bumping into my real parents, and I guess that's how I ended up here. Finding someplace I could call home."

Anna was confused, she had but just told her own tragic tale that lacked daisies and ponies every 18 year old had in their life, yet here he was, telling his own. She had expected words such as 'I'm sorry', 'I never knew' or maybe even 'that's okay', just like how everybody else would respond to her helpless state. Like every other normal person would say. But here he was, opening a little bit of his past just for her.

Then, he looks up. Their eyes meet.

"But now, I found you," he says finally to end his statement, smile small. But it was enough to send her over the edge. Kristoff was never good with words, but these few ones were what really got her. Touched, butterflies swarm her stomach, a smile nailing at her own face as he says as he does. No other words were needed, nothing else could match the comfort he gave her.

Her small hands tugging at his shirt stops his train of thoughts, cutting through his recollection of memories.

"Oh, uh, sorry, what?" he blinks a few times and she scrunches her nose up at him, wondering why he was spacing out.

"I said, I really love Aladdin!" she beamed nonetheless, looking back at the screen, flashes of the movie depicting Aladdin trapped in the chamber and he couldn't quite remember watching the other half since he'd been too lost in his thoughts. He doesn't even remember her crossing her legs from a sitting position, either.

"I know you do. You've said it about a hundred times already and such."

"Good. Because I want you to know. We need more men like Aladdin."

"Diamonds in the rough?"

"Diamonds in the rough," she paused then. And almost immediately, he knows something is wrong.

"Anna?" he strings her name with question. She shifts beside him, he's frozen. And for the slightest of seconds, he sees memories wash into the glass of her eyes and she steels herself, still.

"He loved me, you know."

His head shot back at her, eyes suddenly wide. She laughed heartily, her best efforts of trying to act nonchalant going down the sewers once his skeptical eyes dug into her. Despite their constant teasing, endless babbles of nothingness and the comfortable presence of each other, here she was again; about to shed a few more skin she had been afraid of telling any other soul with the exception of her thoroughly busy sister lately. Here she was again, raw and exposed just for him, new brick walls crashing down and trust thrust up his open arms he would gratefully accept.

"I thought I knew love back then," she continued, hands clamped together, fingers twiddling nervously. "But I was wrong. I was really stupid back then to think he even loved me."

She laughed dryly again, and this time he couldn't hold back.

"What did that jerk do to you?" he asks between clenched teeth, with her still not meeting his troubled gaze.

She paused, as if to contemplate, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

Then, finally; "He said he loved me when he didn't."

Old scars are torn open, and he's angry. He's angry at someone he'd only known from short and brief sentences she had spilled from her lips, yet he had enough every reason to hate this guy. He would honestly beat the bastard into a pulp if he'd been open with the opportunity like shinning light.

Before he even finds the words to spat in his suddenly budding rage, she presses on. "It's funny, because I loved him. At least, I think I did. I met him when I was fifteen, and I was already diagnosed and the whole town knew. He'd act all sweet and such after, though he graded me as trash when I was still at school and healthy. He wanted to be known as the 'good guy who dated the ill girl', the 'guy everybody loves', 'mister goody two shoes'." She air quoted a few times, smile strained with each dry laughter she forced out. "Everything that was opposite of him. Hans Westergard, the man who broke my heart in the end."

He wonders if she was crying, because for a faint moment, her voice is small and breaking, like the rest of her. And as broken as she was, she was beautiful. Not only for something as temporary as looks, but for the way she spoke and thought and loved with all affection and just being _her_.

Herself. Anna. And no one else was ever as good as being Anna, and he loved that, he came to understand slowly. He wouldn't mind cutting himself on the jagged edges of her heart, and oh how he would love to be marked as hers in countless ways he couldn't utterly fathom altogether, Kristoff thought.

Finally building the courage, he shakily wraps his strong arms around her shoulders and pulls her close, thankful Elsa was out because he knew he would be skinned alive if he was caught hitting it with the heavily protected baby sister of all people. She lets out a silent sob, glassy eyes shutting as she lets herself be wrapped in his warm embrace, tucking her face into the crook of his neck, falling apart in his arms.

They stay like this for a long time, her in his arms crying silently as the horrible memories wash back into present with a few thank you's kissed into his skin, him still and protective, his arms a cocoon that stills her into comfort and solace.

A few more sobs and sniffles, he speaks just after a session of Aladdin and Jasmine's duet.

"We should try this," he declares firmly, suddenly brave and unafraid. She pulls away from him slowly, confused.

"Try… try what?" she asks, eyes rimmed still with tears that were slowly drying in her cheeks.

He pauses. Then speaks.

"Us," he breathes, voice faltering just a bit. Her heart skips a few beats. "I mean, me, you—us. You…"

"Do you mean like…?"

"Yes," he articulates slowly, a bit of his confidence flushing into his cheeks. She sees him swallow down his nervousness, but presses on at what he means. "I… chemistry. We have that. A lot. And… I really never loved anyone or any woman in memory well enough to remember, and I'm not even sure how love works in theory, as to speak. And as hard for me to love and have faith in people since all my life I've lived cold and alone… But knowing you, I want to, Anna. I want to. It's either to erase sins of the past or learning how to love, I do not know but I'm sure of one thing right now;" he pauses, suspense like a drumroll to her ears.

"I want you, Anna."

With his voice warm like honey and heavily coated with serenity, she barely hears him in the end because her heart is thundering against the cages of her ribs, and the delicious feeling of warmth surging into her body knocks her off her knees.

"And I know it's going to be a little hard—no, it _is_ going to be hard," he presses on. "And we'll have to work this out. But I want to, I… I want you, Anna. I want all of you."

Fresh tears begin to cake her eyes again, and this time, it's not because of a certain jerk that broke her heart into a million tiny pieces once upon a time, but the right person who brought the glue gun to stick them up together again. And just as broken as they were, they were going to make things work out, she knew this.

Her tired face breaks into a smile he would love to see every day the sun would shine for the rest of his life. "Yes, Kris, yes," she bumps her forehead with his, smile only stretching. "If it means walking into love with you, then yes, Kristoff Bjorgman, I would happily walk into love with you."

He smiles back, nervousness falling apart before crushing her into a hug without the willpower to hide his gratefulness, yet not enough to break her delicacy. She laughs into his arms and slips her thin arms around his neck to pull him closer, warm and real.

She wanted to try this, this odd surreal feeling she's mistaken ages ago; Love. And maybe with Kristoff, things this time wouldn't be so bad. Winds of promising new beginnings blew out the windows, another wonderful start for the both of them, they knew.

Suddenly, she sneezes.

He laughs.

This earns him an affectionate smack on the chest. "Hey! How could you laugh at me like that! After all that relationship thing a solid thing now…"

"Sorry, sorry," he apologizes almost half-heartedly, her still in his arms and refusing to let go. "It's just that you're so cute when you sneeze, just like a kitten. So cute."

She flushed almost immediately, head turning around to hide her petty embarrassment.

"That's just cause you smell…"

"Hey!"

Then it was her turn to laugh.

Then, she remembers how Hans hated how she'd sneeze. He'd tell her off how disgusting it was and throw a list of a hundred facts on why sneezing in front of other people would be revolting with germs flying everywhere and whereof, but then she comes to realize; Kristoff was no Hans. He was better than that, maybe even the best there was for her. Just for her.

Because Kristoff didn't mind unlike everybody else.

He didn't mind at all.

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><p><strong>there's no better way to start this year than with fluff, right? have a good year everyone! feedback is most welcome. <strong>

**ps, i'm thinking of writing a new multi-chap story for Kristanna soon. hope i find time to write even if school gets in the way, haha.**

**until the next chapter then!**


	4. IV

**aaand the fourth chapter. i hope you enjoy. and oh, if you're thinking this is based on TFIOS or anything near that, it's not. dunno if that's good news or bad, but still, enjoy!**

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><p>Chapter IV - A Collection of Moments<p>

Kristoff woke up to one long languid (and gross) lick from Sven's stingy tongue. With his steamy dream of shared kisses with Anna still clouding his brain, he might've responded back by puckering his lips and kissing back but reality quickly swept in and so did sensibility, he groggily pushed his best friend's face away with little might.

"Sven! S'too early for your gross face…" he'd mumbled before digging his face back into his pillow. He heard the mutt snort before he'd poked his wet nose to his side, his neck, and his back.

"What do you want? It's Saturday… that grouchy customer from yesterday's still on my nerves, lemme sleep, pal…"

Another snort, though almost sarcastic this time. Sven barked right in his ear that made Kristoff grab another pillow from beneath him to cover his ears stubbornly like a child.

"Five minutes, and I'll give you all the carrots you need…" he said half-asleep before snoring into the pillow.

Sven sighed, yet trudged off his grilled bed and searched the room for his phone in hopes of dragging Kristoff's lazy butt off the bed once and for all. When he found what he was looking for, he took it between fanged teeth and cautiously poked it to the blonde's face, persistent as ever.

It took two gruesome minutes before he even became aware of the phone poking in his face.

"What!" he groaned into the pillow, a trail of dried saliva at the corner of his mouth. Sven dropped the phone on his forehead.

"Ow!" he yelped, effectively snapping both eyes open only to slowly droop close again. "Devil dog," he mumbled, and Sven growled at him. "Fine, fine, I'll see what you're so worked up over…" getting the phone in thick fingers, he tapped at the transparent screen. He'd stare at the notifying phone, before his eyes grew wide and bolted upright as his brain fully registered whom the message was from.

"Well," he bit his lower lip. "Fuck."

It was from Anna.

Anna (message): _Kris. B. Date tonight. Hope u remember. Did u remember reservations? _

He jumped off his bed with his hair still sitting chaos on his head and his smell more revolting after sweating out more than normal body fluid after last night's work, praying to whatever listening entity that his girlfriend wouldn't throw him in the gutters that he'd forgotten to get his only suit at the Laundromats last night. (Thank goodness he remembered reservations). But of course, he didn't forget to throw a cushion at his mocking dog that chortled as he swiftly threw pants on (and almost tripping) when he did.

He never makes her wait.

* * *

><p>Anna really loves pulling Kristoff into a hug.<p>

She claims he's the most adorable portable teddy bear in the world, with his delightful body heat enough to share just for her and firm body to press hers into. She'd constantly cuddle him, from the haven of home or in crowded public places he'll act all grumpy about from prying eyes, yet ultimately melt into her arms.

In his best and in his worst, she was there to pull him into the tightest embrace he would ever need. By simply slipping her thin arms around his waists and kissing his jaw and anything her pink lips could reach on her tiptoes.

He asks her one time why she loved hugging him so much (because his smell was a bit nauseating and wondered if it bothered her at all).

She smiled at him. "Because I give the best hugs in the world."

She does.

* * *

><p>Kristoff (message): <em>Elsa<em>.

Elsa (message): _yes?_

Kristoff (message): _I'm gay._

Elsa (message): _…_

Elsa (message): _well, that'd be news for Anna._

Kristoff (message): _fck._

Kristoff (message): _elsa, i swear to god that was anna. u know how it is when she gets a hold of my phone. im so sorry._

Elsa (message): _don't be._

Elsa (message): _top shelf. she's 2 short to reach it from there anyway._

Kristoff (message): _ur a lifesaver._

* * *

><p>Anna's favorite game is engaging in a dangerous game of kisses with Kristoff while Elsa is around the house, since they're never allowed to close the door while she's there.<p>

With the door ajar, she would steal him kisses on the cheek, on the neck, on his nose while they mixed tapes or watched movies or played board games or did whatsoever, just to grill him out and see his most agitated reactions out of fear of getting caught. And when they did get caught, they'd receive Elsa's signature 'death glare'.

That were mostly just for Kristoff.

He'd flaunt at the thought of getting strangled by Elsa's thin fingers and would press his face into her hair ruefully, and she would burst out laughing, for the next five minutes or so.

* * *

><p>"Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" Anna nuzzled her nose with Sven as she continued to speak in her most comical voice, earning her an affectionate lick on the cheek, Sven's tail wagging wildly with glee.<p>

"Don't talk to him like that," Kristoff growled from the other end of the couch, watching in horror as his girlfriend babied his best friend. "Why do you even put him on pedestal? He just pissed in the kitchen."

Anna looked up to meet his gaze, pouting petulantly.

"You're just jealous he has carrots and you don't."

He snorted.

"The carrots you brought were near to spoiling anyway. Gladly, it's all his."

"Hey!" she pipes defensively. "The shipping was just a little bumpy. And these carrots were specially imported from Asia. They're rustic."

"And marred."

He laughed when she threw a cushion at him.

* * *

><p>Kristoff gave Anna a concerned look. "You okay?" he asked, eyeing how her chest gave out laborious puffs of uneven air as they walked, stopping to turn to her and let her catch her breath.<p>

She seemed troubled after the next minute, drank in some more fresh air that filled her lungs that screamed thank you, and managed a smile. "I'm okay."

But the thing was that she didn't look okay at all.

* * *

><p>He's there for her when the hospital requires her to stay for the night for uncalled for check ups and countless blood transfusions, making her laugh and sleep soundly into his arms without even the need to ask him.<p>

And she's there for him on silent nights he feels the wash of melancholic memories hitting him that makes him sob softly into her hair with the thought that everybody he had loved had gone, comforted by the thought that he has her anyway.

* * *

><p>"Anna?" Kristoff calls for her, slightly flummoxed and worried.<p>

"Go away," she muttered into her pillow, struggling to keep her voice stern, but a hiccup escapes her swollen lips, and he knows what he's done is wrong.

"Anna, look, I'm sorry…" he moves closer to her side, extending a hand to press into the small of her back. She brushes his touch away; it makes him smile a bit.

"You're annoying."

"Nope, you are. I got my sense of obnoxious peskiness from you."

She pulls the covers down just above her nose to see him smiling broadly, hating how he's smiling even till now. "I'm annoying?"

"No," he edges closer, his weight sinking deeper into her plush bed, both hands wrapping around her waist to pull her close. "Just really, really hard to read sometimes."

"I hate it when you look at other girls…"

He snorts, trailing kisses on her jaw.

"See! You're even laughing at me."

"Yes, I am, cause' you're crazy. I do not look at other girls."

"You were totally checking her out. I should show more skin…"

"Don't, okay? They're all too artificial, and you're you. Plus, I was just wondering why the hell her boobs weren't damn proportionate."

Her pout breaks into a wide smile and she topples over, laughing.

* * *

><p>He loves how she never really runs out of ideas and how she swears there is nirvana contained in chocolate sweets and how simply raw and so painfully honest she is when she talks about something she loves with undying passion. He loves how her bangs sweep just above her eyebrows, and that there's the most adorable twin freckles just below her neck that's shaped like a heart he'd ritually kiss every single day when he's with her. He loves how she's so ticklish and soft to touch and hold, and how she gets incredibly flustered and embarrassed of her song choices when exposed to anyone but him. He loves how her thin fingers pull and settle at his soft hair when they kiss, and when he's wrapped around her she is anything and everything that is Anna.<p>

He loves her.

* * *

><p>She loves how shy and suppressed he is in public and all of civilization, yet soft and dorky when it's just them. She loves how firm and sculpted his muscles are when he flexes absently while getting groceries of too-heavy bags she's not allowed to carry, she loves being held by his strong arms. She loves kissing each scar, each bruise, each part of him that aches that makes him shiver and tremble under her single touch. She loves how he grows conscious of his style choices, because he can never really match his clothes that came cheaply from thrift shops. She loves how he appreciates her weirdness, and fully participates in her crazy antics and wild escapades. She loves how his love is never suffocating, protective and solicitous; she grows in him in every single way.<p>

She loves him.

* * *

><p>Eugene was setting down orders across the room, Kristoff on a stool wordlessly sipping black coffee.<p>

"Just how far do you plan on going with her?" he asks, almost as an afterthought after the comments of last night's game slowly dwindled.

He pauses.

"I'll marry her," he proclaims, determination burning in his eyes and he's more than sure now. The man gives him a sad look, but he does not care. "God, I'll marry her."

Someday.

* * *

><p>No matter how many dates they've been with each other for the past few months, Kristoff could never shake off the nervous flutter of a hundred butterflies in his chest at the thought of taking her out once more.<p>

But most especially because he'd have to go through Elsa first.

He had come five minutes too early when Anna apologetically yelled from upstairs that she still had to get her fingernails dried, and was forced to sit robotically on the couch across the counter from where Elsa occupied a stool, coolly sipping tea from her 'Best Sister In The World' cup. She looks up to him, he rigidly straightens on his seat.

"So," she starts off, raising an eyebrow at him. "Date again, huh?"

He'd found Elsa had a soft side other than her out-worldly sisterly protectiveness and rigidness, yet when it came to terms of date nights and too many affectionate moments between Anna with her around, he found that she was very strict with conservatives and simple self restraints.

He found it hard to move around with her piercing gaze. "Uh, yeah. We found this nice restaurant we could try out for the night. And I earned extra at the Trolls this week, so I have enough money to take her out to a decent place other than the mall and by the beach so…"

"That's great."

"Very."

An uneasy silence follows, Elsa sipping silently on her cup while Kristoff's hands fiddled on his lap, his eyes unsure where to settle over the large house he came to memorize after all this time.

Her eyes suddenly soften, yet her fingers wrap tighter on her lukewarm cup.

"Kristoff?" he senses that something has shifted in the room, and it makes him worried no less.

"Yes?"

It takes her a long moment to reply and she lets out a loud breath, like trying to pull off a heavy weight as much as a brick off her chest.

"Take care of Anna for me," her eyes flicker up, and he looks up as well. There's the smallest of smiles tugging at the corner of her lips, and he sees that she's trying to keep her measured self in front of him, holding back a little to show more dignity. "You know her history—our history, to be frank. I have no idea if she's told you this before but…" she lets out another heavy breath.

"I was never there for her when our parents had gone. I was eighteen and stupid, you know how it is with college girls and such, and how I'd let my demons get to me for far too long. I was in a state of trauma and loss of them, and I'd never considered my only family, Anna, that was there for me. She was always there for me. Always. She doesn't give up on people. I know you know."

"I know," he mirrors her smile, a little sadly, wondering where this was going.

"Even when I pushed her away and practically treated her like rubbish… I was so selfish to bottle my own feelings up to myself; I never knew how much I needed her. How much she needed _me_, not until… not until she finally got diagnosed," she finishes, forehead creasing.

His heart is breaking, but he continues listening.

"And things were never the same with us before," she forces out dry laughter out of her tightening throat, before pressing further. "I can never take back everything I'd done, not even if she'd forgiven me. Still, she doesn't give up on people. She doesn't," she shifts in her seat, lips tightening into a line that marks her sadness. "Not even when she's given up on herself."

He sees that she's desperately fighting back tears, blinking back a few just before looking up to him and smiling fully this time before he could even move to comfort her. "And I must say, Bjorgman, you are one of the best things that has ever happened to my baby sister in a long time. I've never seen her so happy... So I entrust you with her, her everything. Something I could never patch up myself, so please," sincerity floats in the air with her final request.

"Take care of Anna for me?"

Kristoff's heart swells and doesn't hesitate or thinks twice. "I will, Elsa. I will."

Her smile broadens. "Thank you," she says in a small voice, before quickly following up with; "but I swear if you ever do anything to hurt her, and by anything, I mean absolutely _anything_, I will cut you."

His laughter is light even if she'd just threatened to mince him into dog food. "I won't, I'll do anything for her, I swear."

"Good."

Anna is suddenly tumbling into peripheral vision at the door, stumbling on her high heels he worries her small feet would get blisters from. "Kris! Hi! Did you wait for me? Gosh, I hate drying my nails… remind me to buy a stronger fan to make drying a whole lot faster."

"Anna," Elsa extends an arm and Anna slips into her arms, giving her a quick hug. "Have fun. Keep safe on the road."

"We will, Elsa," she giggles, before joining Kristoff that had already moved to the door as he waved Elsa his own meek goodbye from the other end of the room. "See you at ten."

When the two of them had settled in his newly washed pickup truck, spotless and shinning even under the big bright moon, she asks mindlessly about what they'd been talking about while she was upstairs.

He smiles fondly, and a little sadly at that. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

* * *

><p><strong>kinda rushing now, aren't we? well, i did say this was only to be around a few chapters. heads up for the next. feedback is most welcome. till next time!<strong>


	5. V

**aaand another installment! but fair warning; this is the second to the last chapter of this short series. also, feels are coming your way in this chapter. brace yourselves! yet still, i hope you all enjoy. r&r!**

* * *

><p>Chapter V - Resolutions<p>

"That much already?!" Elsa fumed after a gasp, the shock of it sending a quiver to her bones. Anna gripped tighter onto her sister's hand, looking nervously between her and her doctor. He didn't look too happy either. None of them really did.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Anderson. I really wish we'd foretold it sooner, but…"

Anna doesn't hear much of the next explanation she gets from her doctor that's supposed to make her feel any better despite the circumstances, because she's thinking of what's going to happen to _them_ after he's heard the news.

* * *

><p>"How the fuck?" Kristoff spat at his words, groaning into his pillow with much frustration.<p>

Sven laughed evilly across the room.

_Devil dog_, he thought to himself.

"Okay, okay," he said, brushing his self up again as he straightened into a sitting position on the bed. "Another try. I'll shoot."

Sven kept watching from a safe distance.

"Anna," he drawled out slowly in his most practiced voice, and pressed on when Sven began mock laughing across from him again. "I-I know we've been going out for a while now. And… I never really had the chance to tell you this. But I really, really mean what I say when I say this. It's that I—"

_love you._

His lips trembled and his heart is pounding wildly in his ears he can't even hear his own thoughts. He stopped midsentence, blushing profusely that he had to swallow back his words in all nervousness.

Sven rolled on his back laughing again, and he shot a glare at his best friend, cursing and wondering to himself why the hell he always got tongue-tied when it came to telling Anna that he loved her.

But other than that, he's rest assured he could do it.

If he could just get rid of this overly fluttering feeling in his chest…

* * *

><p>That evening, Kristoff crashed into Anna's home after receiving a text that Elsa would be out for the rest night.<p>

She opened the door for him after a knock or two.

"Hi," Anna stood in front of him, in a loose shirt and soggy sweatpants, her smile is a little strained. He smiled back nonetheless, feeling self-conscious at the slightest that he bought his shirt at a thrift shop for the cheapest price.

"Hey," he shifted on both feet, looking more nervous than he's supposed to with the thought and words of encouragement playing at the back of his head on rewind saying _'You can do this, Bjorgman. Tonight is the night!' _

Some of the moonlight poured into the room behind him, and she opened the door wider as he took a step inside. "Hurry, show's about to start," she said, about to reach for his hand, yet pulled away when a flash of realization knocks her, and withdrew her hands and kept them to herself.

He raised an eyebrow. This was not like Anna.

"Um," she fidgeted. "Come on. I'll go get snacks."

"Okay," he agreed skeptically.

Inside, he had already sat at the couch and found a comfortable sitting position on his end when Anna came inside, hands occupied with snacks (and of course, chocolate and carrot juice). Setting them down the coffee table, she sat, scooting away from him at the slightest. He raised his other eyebrow this time.

"What'cha got?" he cleared his throat, sensing an air of awkwardness drifting between them.

She pulled legs to her chest. "Oh. Um. Nicholas Sparks or Disney?"

He didn't really want to confess his love while she was crying about how dramatic and tragic some Nicholas Sparks movie may be so he decided to go with the other choice she'd given him. "Let's go with Disney."

"Okay."

They decided on watching more Disney renaissance, and agreed upon watching The Lion King instead of Aladdin, both on either end of the couch, wordlessly watching with an uneasy air drifting between them. Half-way through the movie, he's still building the courage to say the right words without catching her off guard.

But just then he thought he could say so, she beats him to it.

"How's your family?" she asks suddenly, still not touching the snacks she brought, getting colder by the minute.

He makes a sideways glance at her. "My adoptive one?"

"Um, yeah. Of course."

"They're good. They just called last night. Gran Pabbie's still into walking our dogs, the kids are fine, healthy even, and Mama Bul—"he blushed at using the noun '_Mama'_ right in front of her, though it made her giggle a bit before she cleared her throat noisily and looked back to the screen. "I mean, Ma's dying to meet you. So, all's good."

She swivels her head to face him. "You tell them about me?"

He felt color to his cheeks again. "Yeah. All the time."

"Oh," was her only reply that hung between them, just before she piped up again. "Kris?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you… ever thought about traveling? Even after meeting me?" she asks again, and he wonders for the slightest where her band of questions and queries are coming from. "Or ever thought of going away or anything?"

He pursed his lips to think, eyes trained on the screen. "Well, I've always wanted to see half the country before settling in. But that's okay. I like everything now. And so does Sven," he threw a smile in just for good measure, but she looks away.

He looks at her warily this time, and it's not just the way she clutches her hands over her chest or how she's chewing on her bottom lip that tells him that there's something bothering her, but also how she hastily averts anything that's flesh of hers when they touch. Growing worried, he moves to ask.

"Anna—"

"Let's end this," she said as firmly as she could, wishing her voice wouldn't break at the impact of what she was trying to say.

There's a shattering sound. Maybe it's his heart.

"The movie?" he says hopefully, because he'd gladly end this stupid movie and talk straight to her like a rational person would.

He sees her swallow a heavy lump in her throat, a few words, guilt, maybe out of fear.

"Us," she's trying so hard to stay firm to her words, but her voice quavers and the swimming tears in the rim of her eyes betrays her ultimately. "Let's end _us_."

Another blow to his heart. All his senses grow numb and his eyes are wide and his mouth runs dry. His hands quack, just the slightest, and there's a sinking feeling in his chest he can't quite put words into.

"Anna you—"

"Kristoff, please! Just listen to me!" she's screaming, and her scared voice is ringing in his ears. He's frozen by fear, and he shuts his mouth, doing as he is told. She looks at him after a moment, eyes collecting tears before quickly averting them again, a storm brewing in her icy blues. "We can't do this, Kristoff. We can't _do_ what we keep doing. We have to _stop_," she spat the word like it was vile, biting hard down on her bottom lip.

"But it's what we do best," he said in a small voice. "You, me…" He moves to touch her, but what she says next makes him stop yet again.

"It's worsening," she swallows again, twice this time, her throat closing on her by the minute. He blinks.

"W-What?"

"The fucking sickness in my lungs, Kris. It just won't _go_," A tear escapes her left eye, and she immediately moves a hand to wipe it off, her best efforts shattering by a single damp emotion that rolls down her cheek. The storm in her eyes is worsening, threatening to swallow her soul whole and now her heart is beyond broken.

He's shocked to silence. And the sinking feeling in his chest is worsening, like he's drowning in sorry and pity for her, and all he wants to do is just cradle her in his arms and kiss her and—

"You just can't love me, you can't," she's sobbing now, harder and harder by the moments passing. Another ripping feeling twists his chest and he could see the contradiction shinning in her eyes amidst the tears. "Don't you see, Kris? I'm _dying_," she pauses, finding it harder and harder to even speak, and the world starts to fall apart with her words. And this simple word, this one word was her ultimate destruction. "And I'm sorry I… I'm just holding you back from something better, something far better than just _me_. And I'll never be able to forgive myself if you let all these chances slip away. I want to you travel, I want you to see places, I want you to be _happy_."

It had been getting harder to breathe by the minute, and he didn't expect so much for such a short time's notice. She cries openly and as quietly as she can in front of him, willing herself to focus on the movie before her, but it's all just too much. She was asking him to go, asking him to leave, asking him to find happiness that wasn't temporary other than just _her_.

She's letting him go.

Just like that.

To save him from a heartbreak that he would likely carry for the rest of his life, to save her from any regrets while she still had a life to live.

And so she chokes on her own sobs, desperately trying to stop the tears from washing her face like rain, but it just won't end. There were too many emotions pouring out like a dam she couldn't stop.

Because it's okay.

It's okay if he leaves now without a last resort of a goodbye. It's okay if he goes away now, to save the both of them in the process. It's okay, because it would make things easier. It's okay, because she's used to having doors slammed at her face. It's okay, because she's used to being left alone.

But he doesn't.

"I love you," he breathes suddenly.

He says it. Finally.

All the words and breath is sucked out of her lungs, and her head snap back at him, eyes wide. Her heart skips a beat faster, and his words alone quell the raging storm in her chest, the whole world drowning out, and everything is focused solely on him and his honest confession.

His eyes are threatening to swim with tears, but he's turned to her to fully face her, his face showing no regrets, no restraints, just love. His eyes have melted on her, and with the three words he left floating in the air, he did not say it like a burden or a breath let out forcefully, but delicately glazed with love and with the most pristine letters of the alphabet stringed together just for her.

"I love you," he repeated, a little louder this time. He had been so afraid of saying these words out loud before, and now, he does. After all this time, he does. How did he get so poetic all of a sudden? "I love you, Anna, can't you see? I've once been in love with the idea that loving you would be the most perfect love story put to reality, but that was before. Because this time, I'm not in love with the idea of you, I'm in love with _you_," he declares in all determination, his heart doing a somersault in his chest.

He presses a hand between them, and her heart's beating is pounding in her ears that her throat is closing over the overflowing feeling of it all. How could it be that in such a short period of time he'd gotten so better at choosing his words? There's still doubt in her veins and she wants to protest.

"But Kristoff I'm—"

"I don't care," he says quickly, and he's more than just sure. "I don't care, Anna. That doesn't matter, that rabid sickness in you or the odds we'll encounter, because you're all that matters to me now. I love you."

Another sob escapes her throat, and she breaks down and she throws her arms around him, him holding her with such fragility. Bawling into his shoulder, she trembles and convulses in his embrace, and he soothes her pains with kisses and the assuring warmth his body permeates that makes her bask into him and melt even more, calloused hands tracing the curve of her spine and the softness of her hair.

When her throat had gone raspy and her whole body had stopped shaking, he pulls away at the slightest to cup the side of her face in one hand.

He leans in to press a firm kiss on her forehead. "We'll get through this. Together."

She nodded rapidly, tears still caking her swollen eyes as she held him closer, all the love in her bones bleeding onto him he gladly drenched in.

* * *

><p><strong>* plays piano * dun dun dun dun! the last chapter is next up. also, the new multi-chapter fic i'm thinking about is currently in the works. it's a sci-fi fic with a dash of Kristanna, of course. i may or may not post a one-shot based on its concept sometime soon. i hope you all keep an eye out for it. <strong>

**feedback is most welcome. until the next and last chapter!**


	6. VI

**pssst. hi. this is Secretly a Duck. changed my username for reasons. well, enough chitchat, read on and finish the last chapter! enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Chapter VI - Poigant filled Bliss<p>

A month later, things weren't exactly the same.

Anna's sickness had worsened, and Kristoff's still holding himself together just for her.

She threw up blood at the sink, twice in the past week, and it's getting harder for her to do anything in the bounds of fun since even a mere stroll in the park would leave her breathless in just minutes. And with her worsening case of illness, as much as a few pills were supposedly going to supply her with the right vitamins and minerals, she had grown a little paler and weaker, and it's not from the lack of supplements that caused this, everyone knew.

But it didn't matter as much as before. She had her family, a few friends, him.

One night, he held her hand while she slept peacefully with snake tubes attached to her wrist, him rolling his thumb over the back of her hand, watching her closely and fondly at her rest.

He jumped when Elsa poked her head into the room, the sound of the door opening shattering the silence. "Hey," she greeted quietly, closing the door behind her soundlessly as she could this time.

"Hey," he mimicked, nodding in recognition. The moonlight poured inside the room, escaping even with the curtains pulled down. She grabbed a stool across him.

"You should rest," she told him, looking at Anna still at peace in her sleep. He shook his head no. "You look exhausted."

"No, it's fine," he insisted, slipping his hand away from the ginger's smaller ones.

"No, really. Rest. You look awful," she said, though with a smile. He smiled wider in return.

"She needs me."

"Kristoff, I'm her sister. She needs me, too. And I assure you, you've done more than enough for the past month. I insist you go home and take a good night's sleep. You've been looking over Anna for so long, you'll need to rest soon," Elsa said, her urge for him to leave her side this once is firm and definite. "And this is the only night I'm free of the company's clutches, so please, give me time for her, too?"

Well, Sven had been complaining in his doggy voice that he needed the right sustenance of carrots and dog food to survive in his chaotic apartment space that was being left untouched in the past weeks. He gave Anna one last glance, her even breaths and the fall and rise of her chest along the covers sprawled atop her gives him hope that he'll see her another day.

"Okay," he sighed in defeat, detaching from his seat as he got up as quietly as he could, trying not to look too disappointed or desperate.

"Don't worry," she continued just as he brushed past her. "The hospital is letting her out by tomorrow. See you then."

"Alright," he said, looking over his shoulder once more. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

* * *

><p>The next evening, Kristoff lay stretched on his bed, pillows thrown haphazardly anywhere, blankets thrown on top of his fatigued body from staying up too late for the past weeks and the lack of food eaten at the right time.<p>

Though he was in deep slumber, the best he's had in the past month without getting woke up by uncalled for rushing of doctors into Anna's hospital room or Elsa's snores across him from Anna's bed, the grating vibration of his phone against his thigh shook him out of dreamland.

He jerked awake into a sitting position, before he let his eyes droop, reaching into his pocket and cursing to himself why he hadn't left his phone in the sink instead. He pressed the answer button by instinct, the light from the screen blinding him for a split second.

"Hello?" he mumbled blearily unto the phone, stifling a yawn with his free hand.

_"Kris?"_

The voice on the other side of the line makes him freeze, eyelids flying wide. "Hey, Anna," he threw in his most upbeat voice, all the exhaustion and stress in his bones melting at just the sound of her sweet-sounding voice. "What's up?"

He checked his watch. 1:54 AM. Damn.

There's a pause just before she speaks again, quietly this time. _"I can't sleep."_

"Neither can I."

_"Really?"_ she asks enthusiastically, convinced.

"Well, could," he chuckled, a smile in his voice as he fell back on the covers, looking up into the gray ceiling. "Then you called."

_"Oh,"_ she responded, he guessed she was blushing. _"S-sorry."_

"Don't be."

_"Okay."_

Then they held onto their phones after that, relishing at the pleasant sound of silence, each other's breaths breathed into their phones, the soothing thought that there was someone over the phone that cared enough to stay.

"Do you want me to come over?" he asked after a few moments, thinking to himself where he left his shirt earlier before going to bed.

_"Now?"_ she asks, trying her best not to show the excitement and surprise in her voice.

"Sure," he shrugged, mostly to himself. "I mean, you're awake, I'm awake."

_"The sky is awake,"_ she said into the phone quietly, a smile hidden in her words.

He smiles, too. "Yeah, exactly."

_"Door or window?"_ she poses.

"Window," he said after a while of thinking, jumping off the bed and grabbing his pants by the door. "Be there in five minutes."

* * *

><p>After Anna had counted the red cars that passed back and forth from her window, with eyes adjusted to the dark and had memorized the softness of the covers Elsa gave her that evening by heart, came a soft knock at her window.<p>

Kristoff's huge physique practically blocked the whole window.

Anna giggled, slipping off and under the covers.

"Hi," she smiled, unlocking the sill and opening the glass as he slid inside. "Should I worry that you look like a thief planning on a heist more than a guest?"

"Don't worry," he mirrored her smile, setting foot on the carpet of her room, the moonlight spilling in from behind him. "I may look like a thief, but I have good intentions."

"How'd you do that?" she asked, peeking out of her window to check if where he actually climbed from was safe.

"Oh," he shrugged, a blush suddenly surfacing on his cheeks once he realized she was wearing such thin material to sleep, eyes avoiding hers when she swiveled back to face him. "I did lots of rock climbing before. Passed through lots of mountains and rocky plains, good practice even without a rope."

"That sounds dangerous," she commented, looping both arms around his waists and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. "You should be more careful. Did you hurt yourself?"

"I'm used to it," he coughed into his hand before rubbing the back of his neck shyly. "And I'm fine. Don't worry."

She nodded into his chest and they stood there a while longer, him returning her hug, his chin resting at the top of her head and stroking her sides lovingly, and even in the still and dark room, she could hear the rush of adrenaline of the beating of his heart against hers. As if their hearts were in total sync with each other, beat after beat, the rush excited her to no end.

She pulled away a little, just enough for her to look up to him. "What now?"

"Hmm?" he mumbled into her hair. "Oh, um. Not sure."

"Elsa's still asleep, and she doesn't know you're here so…"

"Let's let it stay that way."

"Exactly my thoughts."

He nodded, her sweet smelling hair striking his senses. He couldn't help but hold onto her a little tighter.

"Do you want to, um…" Anna pulled away again, enough to turn her bed, then back at him. Her bed, back at him. His eyes grew wide. "D'you want to… you know…"

"Oh," He pressed his lips together, the blush spreading over his cheeks rapidly at what he thought she was meaning to say. "A-Anna, I don't think you're in any condition to be, uh, um, with me. And I love you but you know that—"

"No, you dolt!" she immediately waved a flustered hand between them, letting the cloud of idea he was thinking disperse. Embarrassed, she blushed back profusely at the idea of it. It wasn't like they haven't done it before; it was even their first time with each other. And she knew he was just concerned of her health, and as flattered as she is, some recollections of their heated experiences from before bring a deeper color of crimson to her freckled cheek. "I-I meant we should head to the bed and, um, just cuddle! Yeah! Like what we're doing now. But just, you know, lying down. In bed."

"_Oh_," he spouted dumbly, mentally slapping himself and cursing internally, an awkward sense of air following after. "O-Okay. I mean, sure."

Nodding, they moved back to the bed.

Anna was the first to slip under the covers, patting an empty spot for Kristoff to lie next to her. He moved slowly, afraid that a bare creak of the floorboards or the jumping springs of her bed under his massive weight would wake Elsa in the neighboring door.

"Uh, how do I…?" he asked, puzzled as he lay next to her, unsure of where to place his hands with his large figure. She giggled.

"Here, dummy," she smiled, pulling one of his arms over her shoulder, snuggling closer to his chest. "Better?"

"Better," he sighed, pulling her into him.

They lay there for a few more moments, his arms around her shoulders, her hands in his chest and one of her legs swung over his hips into a bear hug, both reveling in each other's arms.

Though, Kristoff couldn't help but stray his eyes out the window.

"You have a good view from here," he said quietly, almost in a whisper, his brown irises dancing with the colors that grazed outside. "You can see the whole city. It's very pretty."

She followed his gaze.

"Oh," she nodded against him. "Yeah. I've always loved the scenery from this part of the house. Sometimes, there are even shooting stars falling over. Which I guess why my parents allowed me to have this room. It's a nice view to wake up to."

"I can see why," he agreed.

The whole town was in viewing point from her window, and so was the huge expanse of stars spread vast unto the sky, sparkling and glowing, a magical feeling spreading up his chest. The lights from town didn't shine as bright, and the stars above outshone them from where they lay.

Her eyes softened.

"Kristoff?" she taps at his chest.

"Yes?"

"Have you…" her voice trailed off, wanting to choose her next words very carefully at this… uneasy subject she would bring up next. "Ever thought that if you didn't stay, you'd be somewhere else? Maybe someplace else where the sun beamed a little brighter, and the people weren't that much of a pain in the ass, and life came about a little easier? Have you ever thought of that?" her voice is getting smaller and smaller as she went, until her last words come out into a perturbed whisper. "Ever?"

He fell silent, stroking her backside and memorizing her every curve, every edge, every her. Her body had turned rigid in his soft touch, an occasional heavy breath released and a nervous swallow echoing through the night.

"No," came his undaunted reply, eyes still caught on the stars outside. She shifts beside him.

"Why?" her voice is small, like it was threatening to break at the idea of a life without him. She couldn't imagine it, and she wonders if he can't, too. She looks at him through inquisitive eyes.

His eyes met hers.

"Because I have you," a smile tugged at his lips, his hand pressing at the small of her back, pulling her closer until no space was left between them, the beat of his heart in time with hers. "And there would be no other place I'd ever be, ever, than being here with you."

How the hell did he get so good with words? Damn it.

Tears start to flood her eyes, a smile so wide pinning at her face that it lights up the dim lit room when she pulled away to look back into his puppy ones. Her heart is swelling in her chest, and this time, she feels no pain but an infinite of jubilee spreading and numbing all her other senses.

"Anna?" his face suddenly fell. Did he say the wrong choice of words? "Are you—"

"I'm happy," she finished for him, wiping one damp eye with the back of her hand. "I'm so happy, Kris."

"Really?" he asks worriedly, almost sitting up but she pins him down, leaning closer.

"Yes," she laughs, her laughter a song that breaks the silence in the room, rich and full. "Yes, Kristoff, _yes_. You make me _so_ happy. _Thank you._"

He smiled back, wider than he ever has before, leaning over to press a chaste kiss on her lips. "Then it is a privilege, Anna, for me to make you the happiest person there is."

"I am, gosh, Kris. I _am_," she's laughing and crying at the same time, she didn't even think it was possible to do the same out of so much glee and love.

"I love you," he said into her hair, stroking her backside again, a surge of warmth spreading over his chest. She smiled into his skin in return.

"I love you, too."

She returned to hugging his chest, his arms encircling her into an embrace, her head tucked comfortably under his chin with a few light kisses pecked unto her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. Then the world went still after that, the beating of their hearts in time with each other, their breaths a soft whisper into the silence of the night.

And there, he really does realize it. He had no particular destination before, but he finds that the roads he's mapped before and the shortcuts he's thought about would always lead to her; he's found shelter in her arms.

And she is fulfilled with the thought that bumping into Kristoff is the best thing that's ever happened to her, and no ending would be as better as being with him. Because it's him, it's always been him.

So they fell asleep like that, in each other's embrace, arm in arm, warmth for warmth, in love.

She was happy, and he was home.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **ok. so i won't lie when i say that the ending was sorta, a bit, and kinda a little rushed. i swear i was supposed to break you hearts, but life keeps throwing bricks at me at the moment and it's hard to balance fandom life and real life. but i'm glad to have ended this smoothly, i hope you all liked it! another amazing ride with you guys with this short series. thank you for everyone's lovely support and kindness. you guys rock.

if anything, i'm already working on the new multi-chap i've been talking about. it's a Dimension Skip!AU and SoulMate!AU for Kristanna, sci-fi _ish_ and everthing like that. it's my first time writing something with such a hard concept and twisting plot, but i hope to post it soon. of course, thank you to **EveBelle18** for helping me with this short series and my new one! love you, Eve!

this piece may or may not have an epilogue. well, until the next fic! see you! *waves*


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